On the Hill: Shooting guns

Relax. That buzz you hear this morning is from snow guns on Aspen Mountain, not your hangover from Halloween partying. Well, maybe not.Aspen Skiing Co. Chief Operating Officer Mike Kaplan said Monday that the plan for Monday night and this morning was to fire up the snow guns on Aspen Mountain and Snowmass for the first time this season. Temperatures were supposed to plunge low enough after the weekend storm cleared out and skies cleared up.It’s always good to make snow on top of natural snow rather than throwing it on bare ground, he said.And the mountains have a good start to the natural stuff. Snowmass reported 14 inches of the fresh Saturday and Sunday. Aspen Highlands tallied 12 inches; Aspen Mountain logged 10, and even Buttermilk scored 6 inches on the upper environs.Ajax and Snowmass open for the season on Thanksgiving Day.Colorado Ski Country USA, the state trade association, reported that resorts around the state fared pretty well from the weekend storm. Telluride reported 19 inches on the top of the mountain. Powderhorn, on Grand Mesa outside Grand Junction, received a foot.The western and southwestern parts of Colorado got hit harder this time. (The first big storm of the season dumped more in Summit and Eagle counties.) This time, resorts on the Interstate 70 corridor reported only 5 to 8 inches of snow.Two Colorado resorts, Loveland and Arapahoe Basin, are already open for business, and Copper Mountain is opening Friday. Breckenridge and Keystone are scheduled to open a week later, on Nov. 11.For more snow conditions, opening dates and event information, visit coloradoski.com.